The Presa Canario’s black coat has become nothing
short of a scandal among the (official ) club’s directors. Some years
before this association even came about, I published an article
proposing that the Presa Canario’s black coat could have come from
crossbreeding with the black Great Dane. Back then I was unaware that
there were majorero cattle dogs with black coats. The truth is that in
the beginning of the 60’s hardly anybody had done any research at all
regarding the origins of these dogs. Today we know something more about
them. For instance, presas of centuries past have nothing to do with
those of the 1920´s through the 1950´s, and these latter have little -if
anything- to do with present-day presas. Furthermore, we must never make
the mistake of relating or confusing the aboriginal Canarians’ dogs with
those that the conquistadors and francospanish colonizers brought with
them from the Iberian peninsula.

The aboriginal dogs have been gone from these islands
for a very long time. Cattle dogs (which were once common on all of the
islands and whose only variety now in existence is the majorero), presa
(or "seizing") dogs, water dogs, mastiffs, partridge dogs, beagles,
hounds, and dogos, all of which are referred to here and there in
historic documents, these dogs were all of Spanish origen. Of these
original breeds, (or "seeds" if you will) the only one that still exists
today is the Perro de Ganado Majorero (the majorero cattle dog), which
is a variety or subspecies derived from the old cattle dogs (again,
Spanish in origen) and the Podenco Canario (Canarian hound). Now, given
all this and taking into account that the object of this article is the
black coat on Presas Canarios, let’s take a look at the first reference
which is made to this color on a Canarian dog, or in the hands of a
Canarian owner.

The conquest of the Canary Islands was completed in
1497. Throughout the extensive period which entailed the conquest, the
aboriginal Canarian population was decimated, their society was
completely debunked. Their lands were divided up among Europeans and a
small aboriginal minority that collaborated with the conquerors. After
the discovery of the Americas, part of the Canarian conquistadors moved
on to the new world, taking with them some aboriginal Canarians to help
in the new conquest abroad. And "on the Spanish island Juan Canario and
his black dog were famous" (quote from Historia General de las Islas
Canarias by Joseph de Viera y Clavijo). It is needless to say that it is
very probable that this dog earned a salary, like many others did, such
as Becerrillo and Leoncillo used by Diego de Salazar’s army. Was this
dog of Juan Canario a Presa Canario? We cannot say for sure, but it is
highly likely since presa (or "seizing") dogs were the ones that the
Spanish took with them on their conquest expeditions to the Americas
(according to all the documentation that I could possibly gather on the
topic—which, may I say, is quite a bit). And like many others of its
kind, this black-coated dog left the Canaries with Juan Canario for the
New World. I would like to make it clear here that the island presa
canario dogs (of Spanish origen) were bred quite extensively in order to
be taken to the conquest of the Americas. It is also possible that a
portion of those dogs were cattle dogs, given their reknowned fierceness
and bravery.

If Juan Canario’s dog was black, it is easy to deduce
that the number of black presa dogs that were bred in the Canaries was
significant. There are still black cattle dogs in the Canaries to this
very day. Unfortunately for the Perro de Ganado Majorero, official
recognition has only been given to one coat: bardina (brindle). (A grave
mistake which will doubtlessly need to be corrected.)
In the present-day we find loads of references to black presa dogs,
and we are going to list here just some of the more famous specimens.

- El Negro (black, as its name indicates), which fought
with Muchacho in Gran Canaria in 1928;

- An excellent photograph has been preserved of Juan
Falcón Lorenzo with his black presa in the town of Bañaderos (Gran
Canaria) in 1957;

- There is another photograph taken in Bocabarranco de
Gáldar (in Gran Canaria) of the black presa named Moro, owned by
Panchito Saavedra in the 1950’s;

- From the 1960’s we have an extraordinary photo given to
us several years ago by José Rivero from Las Mercedes (in Tenerife),
where he is seen with some friends and his impressive black presa;

- Del Tinto is the name of another black presa that was
born in Vecindario (Gran Canaria) in the 1970’s and owned by Demetrio
Trujillo Rodriguez, of which I myself took several photographs, as I did
also of Moreno, the black brother of Del Tinto’s same litter, owned by
Pepito alias "El Cojo" in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria); there are several
others which I shan’t bother listing here.

After an ardent fight, on April 28, 1989, in the
First Registry of the Breed which was held in the Las Palmas Fairgrounds
(on the island of Gran Canaria), the black Presa Canario dog was
accepted by the Spanish Central Royal Canine Society and several black
presas received Initial Registries.

ORIGINS OF THE BLACK COAT

As to the origins of Juan Canario’s black (presa?)
dog, I am tempted to say that perhaps the black coat was just as common
as the bardina (brindle) coat or the sandy coat were in those days. It
probably went back pretty far, too, both in presa dogs and in cattle
dogs.
The black coat of the presas that were around from the beginning of
the century til the 1960’s could have inherited it from the Canarian
cattle dogs, the black Spanish Mastiff, the Great Dane, etc. By the
1920’s with no more of the old Presas Canarios around anymore (about
whose morphology we know practically nothing), the Canarians started
crossing different types of dogs in order to obtain specimens which
would serve them well in pechadas (the particular Canarian word for dog
fights). These specimens, which were the outcome of several types of
crossbreeding, were given the same name as the previous dogs
("presas")—though they actually had nothing to do with that old Presa
Canario.

And just as I defend (without the trace of a doubt)
the thesis that the Presa Canario of centuries past has completely
disappeared from the map, I am also more and more likely to believe that
in present-day majorero cattle dogs with high levels of racial purity
there still exists something of the old Presa Canario. There are
phenotypical traces, morphological similarities and behavioral patterns
which confirm this.

Actually, it isn’t a strange supposition at all, given the mixing
that was going on for one reason or another between both breeds during
the four long centuries that these two breeds coexisted in the Canaries.
We won’t enter into a discussion here on the possible occasional
influence of some dogs of other origins. Such an influence could have
existed between the beginning of the conquest and the end of the 1800’s.
But such influence would be small and, hence, if it even did exist, it
is clear that little or no modification was made on the racial
characteristics of the island dogs, whose caste was regenerated with
periodical imports from the Iberian peninsula.

THE BLACK COAT IN THE PRESENT-DAY PRESAS

The black coat on a "modern" Presa Canario has been
picked up from the Perro de Ganado Majorero, the Great Dane, the
Neapolitan Mastiff and the American Pit Bull Terrier, more or less.
Purists that are against the black coat of the Presa Canario say that
this color is the result of crosses of Presas Canarios with black Great
Danes (basing their story, I think, on an article of mine which makes
reference to this idea).
Sure, some black Presas Canarios are descendents of one or another
branch of Great Danes, just as some sandy, tawny or striped specimens
are descendents of one or another branch of Bullmastiff, Mastiff,
Neapolitan Mastiff, etc.

Now we are at the point where everybody knows that Presas Canarios
are the result of crossbreeding severalbreeds, some of which were
presas, and others not, in the very recent past (in the past 25 years),
with the exception of some rare specimens that by one branch or another
of their heritage go back yet further. And I think that at this point
insisting on not accepting the black coat on a presa canario because "it
comes from a Great Dane" is just pure hastiness. For if we apply that
same rule to other colors, we would also have to reject a sandy-colored
coat, which was transmitted by reiterated crossings with the
Bullmastiff, and on and on. None of the colors accepted in the official
standard of the Presa Canario are defendable on the grounds of antiquity
or racial purity.

For these reasons, it seems to me that we need to
focus our attention on defending the standard of the Presa Canario,
without giving in an inch on its integrity. And under no circumstances
should we allow the official standard of the Spanish Central Royal
Canine Society to be modified—especially the section which talks of all
the acceptable coat colors, among which BLACK is included.